Corey Furgal apologizes for his actions that led to Christopher Vydfol's murder during Furgal's sentencing in Hillsborough County Superior Court in Nashua, New Hampshire Tuesday, April 19, 2011. Furgal was handed a 40 year to life sentence.

Susan Beaudoin, left, kisses Lorri Geoffroy after Corey Furgal's sentencing in Hillsborough County Superior Court in Nashua Tuesday, April 19, 2011. Geoffroy's son Christopher Vydfol was stabbed to death by Furgal at a party in 2009. Beaudoin's son Matthew died when Yvonne Hernandez struck him with her car in 2008. The two had become friends since the loss of both of their sons.

NASHUA – Corey Furgal, who was convicted earlier this year of killing a Merrimack man in 2009, will spend at least 32 years behind bars, a Superior Court judge ruled this morning.

Two months after jurors found Furgal guilty of two counts of second-degree murder, Judge Diane Nicolosi sentenced him today to 40 years to life in N.H. State Prison for killing Christopher Vydfol at a Merrimack house party.

Furgal, 25, was convicted in February of stabbing Vydfol, 20, through the heart early Nov. 1, 2009.

Furgal could be released on good behavior after 32 years, Nicolosi ruled.

“The motive in this case was fairly clear,” she told the court as she issued the ruling. “It was motivated by anger.”

Furgal’s defense attorneys acknowledged throughout the February trial that their client stabbed Vydfol, but they contended Furgal did so in self-defense, attempting to hold off a mob of party guests questioning him about an iPod that had gone missing.

After ten days of testimony, jurors rejected this argument, convicting Furgal on both second-degree murder counts, as well as a charge of being a felon in possession of a deadly weapon.

Nicolosi sentenced Furgal to three-and-a-half to seven years in prison for that charge, as well, though that time will run concurrently to the time served on the murder charges.

Furgal, addressing Vydfol’s friends and family members who gathered in the courtroom, apologized for his role in the stabbing.

“If I knew (that day) what I know now, I never would have taken that iPod. But I didn’t,” he said softly, turning to face the courtroom. “I never intended for this whole situation to turn out the way that it did.”

But neither Vydfol’s friends nor his family members accepted Furgal’s sentiments.

“I’ll never forget or forgive what you did,” the victim’s father, Joseph Vydfol, told Furgal during the sentencing.. “I hope you rot and suffer wherever they send you, and I hope its for the rest of your pathetic life.”